Dey
“Dey” is Tamil slang. A polysemic portal into community. It is “hey”, “no”, “yes”; it hails, it invites, it warns, it cajoles, it pleads, it loves. Just like Shivram Gopinath’s Dey: a cross-genre, multi- tongued celebration of diasporic desire, complaint and joy that stretches what poetry can be. Part translation, part illustration, part verse, Dey is a love child of Tamil cinema tropes and themes, Singaporean hopes and dreams. A discordant soundtrack to migrant identity, an invitation to a language game, a retort to power. Rajinikanth, Lee Kuan Yew, durian fish soup fight for your eyeballs. A thick syrupy mix, that’s what. Dey, read it.
Read the first pages →
Dey
Slide to see
Paperback
$22.00 SGD
Reviews
"Vaa, poetry vaasikka! If you catch even a bit of this, you’re ready for Dey, a bold and fascinating debut poetry ride from Shivram Gopinath. You’re never quite sure whether you’re reading Tamil poems sprinkled with English or romanised Tamil poems that might call for Google Translate (the poet occasionally recommends it). It’s perfectly fine if you don’t get everything on the first go; the second serving is even more delicious, especially with payasam and gulab jamun. Irreverent, humorous, and raucous, Dey is both experimental and steeped in spoken-word tradition, bringing fresh energy to poetry on the page." —Malachi Edwin Vethamani, poet, fictionist, editor and emeritus professor
"Shivram exploded onto the spoken word scene with his wit, wisdom, rock star energy and smooth sense of humour roughly a decade ago, and Singapore’s poetry scene hasn’t been the same since. To watch Shivram perform poetry live onstage is to be transfixed, transformed and transported into another dimension. This book is Shivram’s attempt at capturing the energy and feeling of a Shivram- spoken-word set in paper form and he does a damn good job of it. It is perhaps the closest you will ever come to holding Shivram in the palm of your hands. This book unapologetically interweaves critique and keen observation of the violence, hypocrisies and absurdities of Singapore society with playfulness, puns, sadness, so much rhythm, rage and Tamil song lyrics. Dey is a slick, stunning tour de force of a collection that will swagger into your heart and live rent-free in your head for years to come." —Stephanie Dogfoot, National Poetry Slam Champion, UK (2012) and Singapore (2010), spoken word poet and independent event producer
"Dey is a collection that demands to be read out loud. Shivram has a real ear for the rhythms of text in its various forms—speech, song, marketing copy, press statements, web detritus. It all gets upcycled into maximalist découpage. Some of this book will be difficult to parse for readers unfamiliar with Tamil. Some of it, like “Appam Recipe in Tamil”, is impenetrable precisely because Tamil may as well be lorem ipsum to the structures of the mainstream. No need to struggle, not understanding is really okay one. Follow the directions on the page, try new sounds on your tongue/recite them from memory, or call your parents, as I did, and ask them to read (selected) poems along with you. Say you louw them before hanging up. (Please use your discretion here.) I don’t remember the last time I had this much fun reading a book. My mother would like to add: “A very humorous book, you get a chuckle out of it. You should tell people your mum finds it very funny."" —Ruby Thiagarajan, Editor-in-chief, Mynah Magazine
"Visceral, joyful, and unapologetically riotous, Dey revels in the complexities of migrant identities." —Balli Kaur Jaswal, author of Sugarbread
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Attunement
Is life hustling you out of tune? As the week roars by, we invite you to a slice of attunement penned lovingly by our authors, friends, and yours truly. Freshly delivered weekly with care. Intimacy guaranteed. Read selected letters below.
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